Sio2 Materials ScienceSiO2
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CEO & Executive Chairman
Bobby is the Founder of SiO2. He brings six decades of experience in complex manufacturing and product innovation to the company. Bobby has a 30 year track record of manufacturing and selling plastic packaging containers to Pharmaceutical, Diagnostic, Consumer, and Government customers. Over this period of time, he has produced more than 10 billion containers for some of world’s most discerning Brands around the globe including Lifescan and M&M Mars.
Prior to entering into the packaging space, Bobby ran one of largest dairy companies in the United States which he then sold to a consortium led by Kraft and Borden. He introduced multiple industry changing innovations from supply chain to automated manufacturing to packaging and has frequently taken dominant market positions with his companies.
As an inventor, he holds more than 100 patents which he has used to develop paradigm changing technologies across numerous regulated industries. Bobby is a serial entrepreneur and has built multiple successful companies which have led to four successful “exits.” Bobby holds degrees from Cornell University, where he also serves on numerous Boards of the university.
President
Lawrence is an award-winning, seasoned, global executive with more than 25 years of experience in leading companies through transformations, transitions, and scale-ups; He has a proven track record of leading organizations at all stages, from start-up to more than $1 billion in revenues. Throughout his career, he has held leadership responsibilities across all functions of the value chain from research to development to manufacturing to marketing and sales. He has lived and managed businesses in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Lawrence has launched numerous pharmaceutical and medical device products and has directed numerous award-winning marketing campaigns. He also has broad experience with government and media relations. Having spent his early career with companies including Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, and McKinsey, Lawrence spent his formative leadership career at Merck KGaA where he eventually held roles including Head of Global Strategy, Head of Commercial Development, Commercial Director, Country General Manager, Global Franchise Head, and eventually CEO of Latin America where he lead more than 2,000 employees across 16 countries with more than $1 billion in annual revenue. During his 15-year career at Merck, Lawrence was the only individual to receive the coveted CEO Award from 3 different CEOs. Outside of his role at SiO2, Lawrence supports the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a mentor to young founders and as an Advisor and Board member to various start-ups.
Lawrence holds a bachelor's degree from Babson College, an MBA from IMD, and various Executive MBA Certificates from MIT, Kellogg, and Wharton..
Chief Strategy Officer & General Counsel
Ron has more than 30 years experience in strategic partnerships, corporate law, and transactions. Ron was most recently a partner at Cooley LLP and has played a significant role in some of the largest leveraged buyouts and high-profile private equity transactions consummated in the marketplace on behalf of some of the world's largest private equity firms and private equity consortiums.
Ron has represented The Carlyle Group and Welsh Carson in numerous high profile transactions, including the acquisition of QwestDex, and was lead counsel for a consortium of private equity firms, including KKR, Blackstone, Carlyle, TH Lee and Hellman & Friedman, in the VNU transaction. Ron was also lead corporate counsel for the United States in both the General Motors and Chrysler restructurings. He was selected by The American Lawyer as "Dealmaker of the Year" (2003). Prior to joining the Cooley, Ron was global head of private equity for both Latham & Watkins and Cadwalader. Ron received his BA in Economics from Harvard College (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and his JD from Harvard Law School (cum laude).
Chief Financial Officer
Paul Fehlman has over 30 years of experience in various executive financial roles at public companies leading highly effective teams, raising capital, driving superior cash flows, interacting with investors, bankers, and rating agencies, and creating value through strategic M&A, risk management, and continuous improvement at the operations level.
He recently served as a CFO at AZZ Inc. for six years and for 13 years at Flowserve Corporation in several positions including VP Treasurer, FP&A, and Investor Relations, as well as VP Finance of the largest operating division of this industrial manufacturer.
After graduating from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, Paul spent his early career with American Airlines and Global Industrial Technologies where he focused on global finance, organic growth and risk management. He was named CFO of the Year in 2016 by the Fort Worth Business Press and has served on the boards of two charitable organizations.
Chief Technology Officer
Ken has more than 25 years in leadership roles within senior leadership teams, engineering, quality, and operations.is responsible for the design, development, and scaling of our manufacturing technology & assets at SiO2. Ken has a proven track record in two startup situations where he developed and executed launch strategies that eventually saw both companies transition into successful acquisitions with significant growth in shareholder value.
He also has strong technical skills in the areas of high performance polymers, plastic part design, automation, vision, sealing, and innovated tooling approaches. Ken has been with SiO2 since the early days of the company’s formation and has built the foundations of the company’s manufacturing and technical operations. Most recently, Ken was responsible for executing on our Operation Warp Speed agreements of scaling our operations from one plant to four plants in record time.
He has been leading our efforts in the deployment of all our automation and advanced inspection systems. Ken has several medical device patents and personally championed applications used in the Life Science, Aerospace, Defense, Energy, and Industrial markets. Ken has a degree in Plastics Engineering Technology from the Shawnee State University, and an MBA from Xavier University.
Chief Innovation Officer
Head of R&D
Ahmad has more than 15 years of experience in the research, development, and manufacturing of thin films across a broad range of applications. He started his career as a research scientist before progressing through the ranks of process engineering and on to technology management.
Prior to his tenure with SiO2 Medical Products, he led several successful programs related to development and new technology realization. His vast experience in process science and advanced material technology, coupled with his expertise in thin film deposition methodologies, has made SiO2’s coating technology readily available for numerous applications. From parental packaging and enhanced diagnostic testing to new consumer products, he has made viable the rapid expansion and seamless integration of SiO2’s core technology from concept into commercialization.
Ahmad brings a proven track record commercializing new technology, and their implementation success. He has held leadership roles across engineering, research and development, and operations spanning teams upwards of 200. While at his previous companies Xunlight and Unisolar, he held responsibilities to establish the end to end operations of solar module manufacturing, including the design of equipment and installation. Examples of the outputs included a new proprietary coating process which reduced manufacturing scrap by 20%; and a new coating physics to increase solar module power by 30%. Ahmad is a key inventor of SiO2’s core technology and innovations, with over 20 patents across medical device, coating process, and parenteral packaging. He has built an R&D organization with seasoned engineering talent charged with making the impossible—possible and integrating innovative solutions into business success. Ahmad studied analytical chemistry at Beirut Arab University and then inorganic chemistry, with an emphasis on thin film coatings and devices, at the University of Toledo.
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Weikart brings 25 years of R&D experience in driving research programs, creating new materials, developing new products, and identifying future research initiatives. He has managed R&D organizations in both North America and Europe.
Dr. Weikart has developed innovative technology in the fields of food and beverage packaging, solar encapsulation, thermal foam insulation, architectural windows, lithium-ion batteries, optical devices, extended wear contact lenses, laboratory consumables and parenteral packaging for biologics. He graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a PhD in chemical engineering with a specialty in materials science, interfacial science and thin film technology. His graduate work included a DARPA project in collaboration with the United States Air Force to eliminate lead-based paints on aircraft components. He also worked on an R&D project in support of Cibavision’s commercialization of their first extended wear contact lenses called Focus Day & Night.
After graduate school, Dr. Weikart joined The Dow Chemical Company’s Central Research Center in Midland, Michigan. He started as a senior researcher honing his skills in new product development, project management, collaborative external research, and intellectual property. After working on over a dozen different R&D project initiatives and earning 6 technical advancement awards at Dow, he was promoted to lead the emerging lithium-ion battery materials program at Dow. This included managing R&D activities in Midland, Michigan as well as a startup company acquisition in Lausanne, Switzerland that invented a new cathode material for higher energy density batteries.
Dr. Weikart joined SiO2 Materials Science as Director of R&D in December of 2011. He assembled a technical team to develop the first hybrid parenteral containers for biologic drugs. Dr. Weikart helped to expand the company’s product portfolio to include blood collection tubes for liquid biopsies, baby bottles and laboratory consumables based on the company’s core technology. Dr. Weikart has produced 12 granted patents, 13 peer-reviewed technical journal articles and dozens of presentations at trade shows and conferences across the globe. He earned a Six Sigma Black certification during his career at The Dow Chemical Company.
Chief Manufacturing Officer
David G. DeBaets is a senior executive with over 35 years of diverse experience in the consumer products, automotive, and biotechnology industries. He was Vice President of Global Engine Operations at Briggs & Stratton, a position he held from 2012 to 2019. Briggs & Stratton is the world’s largest producer of gasoline engines for the outdoor power equipment market.
Dave joined Briggs & Stratton in 1986 and served in various capacities, including Vice President of North American Operations and Vice President and General Manager – Large Engine Division. He also served as a director on several of the Company’s strategic joint ventures. Dave has extensive knowledge and experience in lean manufacturing, plant start-ups, capacity planning, P&L management, new product introductions, global supply chain management, and strategy development and implementation. He is a creative problem-solver, mentor, and process-focused leader that understands the importance of relationships in meeting business objectives.
Dave received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and completed studies on a MSEM at Milwaukee School of Engineering. He currently serves as Chairman of The Industrial Development Board for the City of Auburn, Al and volunteers his time as a board member on the Food Bank of East Alabama Inc.
Chief Accounting Officer
Mike brings more than 35 years of experience of leading finance teams that help organizations build results-oriented financial systems, develop efficient capital structures, and make strategic acquisitions. He takes a hands on approach that partners with operations to achieve financial success through implementing efficient results monitoring, directing the organization towards successful financial outcomes, performing detail capital financial planning and offering financial options through scenario based modeling.
Mike has been involved in companies during everything from high-growth start up phases, to navigating through economic challenging times, to partnering with private equity firms doing acquisitions, to mature businesses tapping into public markets for capital to execute strategic acquisitions. Mike spent his early career with Deloitte as a Staff Auditor and progressed to Audit Senior Manager responsible for large multi-national SEC audit clients. After Deloitte Mike helped Divisions of West Corporation through tremendous growth phases by being part of the executive teams of two divisions that executed on growth initiatives that resulted in revenue growth of 3-4x in each of those divisions.
After leaving West Mike partnered with various private equity firms in raising money, acquiring customer service organizations and helping those private equity firms realize the target returns on their investments by being a financial executive within those acquired companies. Mike joined SiO2 to lead the transition of the finance and accounting organizations as the CFO and has been instrumental in supporting various strategic programs, including SiO2’s execution of their Operation Warp Speed agreements with the US Government. Mike received his BBA from the University of Texas in San Antonio and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs
Randy Crenshaw has been with SiO2 since its inception in 2011 and is Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs. He brings with him over 30 years of experience in providing the pharma industry with molded sub-assemblies and value-added operations supplying such companies as Eli Lilly, GSK, Novo Nordisk, and others. He has been an integral part of the start-up of 3 new facilities for Nypro Inc. which boasted 63 plants worldwide. Randy implemented quality systems, and as the Management Representative in these locations achieved one of the first plants worldwide to become ISO 13485 registered and one of the first plants worldwide to successfully host an FDA Inspection with no 483’s issued that resulted in this plant becoming the “flagship” for the other locations around the globe.
Randy joined Nypro in 1991 as Quality Manager for a new facility being constructed in Albany, Georgia, and successfully implemented Quality Systems for ISO 9001. In 1995 Nypro Purchased the Sony Molding Facility in Dothan, Alabama where Randy was an integral part in developing quality systems that would meet the ISO 9001 for this facility. In 1995 Nypro purchased an existing facility from GTE, in Asheville, North Carolina where a new facility was constructed and it is when Randy transferred to the Asheville facility where systems were implemented that reached ISO 9001, as well as QS 9000 certification and subsequently ISO 13485 Certification, were achieved.
Global Head of Commercial Development
General Manager For Europe
Yves Steffen, an engineer by training, has over 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry spanning engineering, drug product development, packaging, device operations, device commercialization, and sustainability. His career started at Cilag AG (a Johnson& Johnson company) as a project engineer where he was responsible for the installation, qualification, and validation of aseptic filling, visual inspection, and packaging lines. In 2006 he joined Novartis being first responsible for technical services at the production site in Switzerland and then moving into a role responsible for product transfers and launches for biopharmaceuticals. In 2014 he established a devices and packaging commercialization group for biosimilars and biologics at Novartis where he held the role of Head of Packaging & Device Commercialization. Just prior to joining SiO2, Yves spent time with SHL Medical AG as Global Director of Sustainability where he heads responsibility for all sustainability initiatives in the company.